Inside an A.L.F. Investigation: FBI Documents Expose Evidence in A.L.F. Case

Sunday, March 28 2010 @ 09:15 PM UTC

Contributed by: AnimalLiberation

In March 2009, William “BJ” Viehl and Alex Hall were charged with Animal Enterprise Terrorism for the release of 650 mink from the McMullin Fur Farm in South Jordan, UT; and an attempted raid at Blackridge Farms in Hyrum UT. While their case is well-known, little has been written of the evidence which led to their indictment.

An inside look at the FBI evidence which led to indictments for a Utah Animal Liberation Front mink release

From Voice of the Voiceless

In March 2009, William “BJ” Viehl and Alex Hall were charged with Animal Enterprise Terrorism for the release of 650 mink from the McMullin Fur Farm in South Jordan, UT; and an attempted raid at Blackridge Farms in Hyrum UT. While their case is well-known, little has been written of the evidence which led to their indictment.

After Viehl’s sentencing, I was allowed to view FBI paperwork in their case, outlining the evidence against them. It offers crucial lessons on FBI investigations, and the errors activists make which can lead to their arrest.

In the paperwork, I learned the investigation into the Utah mink releases involved informants, cell phone records, search warrants, and more.

This article uses the case against Alex Hall and William Viehl as a case study in the anatomy of an Animal Liberation Front indictment: the evidence, and the lessons learned.

The Evidence

#1: Car key left at the scene

The most damning evidence was a car key found in the grass at the McMullin Fur Farm the morning after the raid. The key was later matched to Viehl’s vehicle. Viehl would later say the key had fallen from a shallow pocket while he was releasing mink.

#2: Cell phone records

The second most damning evidence against Viehl – and nearly the only evidence against Hall – is cell phone records placing them (or more accurately, their phones) near the mink farm in South Jordan around the time of the raid. Cell phone company records allegedly recorded the signals unique to each phone “pinging” off nearby towers before, during, and after the time of the mink release.

It should be well known at this point that every cell phone regularly broadcasts a signal which pinpoints the location of a phone. This leaves a nearly permanent record of the times and places of one’s travels (or at least the location of one’s phone). Cell phones also function as roving microphones, which can be turned on remotely and can pick up all conversation within earshot of a phone’s mouthpiece – even when the phone is turned off.

#3: Informants

An informant named “Sarah”, believed to be planted in the Salt Lake City animal rights movement by the FBI, was revealed in the paperwork. She attended animal rights meetings, protests, and the Confronting Cruelty conference in the spring of 2008. Paperwork refers to her only as “CHS (Confidential Human Source)”. However, those familiar with her were able to determine her identity from details in the paperwork. Salt Lake City activists remember her as asking a lot of inappropriate questions, and taking extensive notes at meetings. FBI paperwork shows she provided information on numerous individuals in the local animal rights movement.

I can personally verify the existence of “Sarah”: she befriended me at an animal rights conference under the pretext of seeking help for starting a dog rescue in Guatemala. “Sarah” would later take me on an all-expenses paid weekend trip to Moab, Utah in the fall of 2008.

View FBI reports of information reported by "Sarah":

"Confidential Human Source" Document #1

"Confidential Human Source" Document #2

"Confidential Human Source" Document #3

At least two other individuals consented to interviews with the FBI. The information obtained did not appear to aid the FBI’s case, but that in no way mitigates the seriousness of forfeiting your constitutional rights by talking to law enforcement.

#4: Being ID’d near mink farms

The pair had been stopped by police near Utah two mink farms in the weeks following the McMullin release.

Late one night in October 2008, a mink farmer who had stayed up all night to watch her farm (after two mink releases had occurred in the previous 6 weeks) in Hyrum, UT, followed a car she believed was suspicious. She claims the car pulled over after a short while, and approached her asking why she was following them. The farmer called police. Viehl and Hall were allegedly ID’d as the occupants.

Two weeks before 7,000 mink were released from the Lodder farm in Kaysville, Hall and Viehl were allegedly stopped by police near the farm. The officer alleged there had been burglaries in the area, and believed the two were casing homes. A subsequent search of the vehicle allegedly turned up ski masks and wire cutters.

#5: Warrantless bank record search

Without a warrant, Viehl’s bank turned over bank records showing (again, allegedly) Viehl hired a locksmith to open his vehicle in the days after the McMullin raid. Because a car key fitting Viehl’s vehicle had been found at the scene, this was used by the prosecutor to further indicate guilt.

#6: Vehicle search

The FBI obtained a search warrant to search a vehicle associated with Viehl. The key left at the mink farm was allegedly found to match the vehicle.

Conclusion

In the end, the car key found at the scene and cell phone record placing the phones near the farm the night of the raid provided the most incriminating evidence. The cell phone records are practically the only evidence being used in the (still pending) case against Alex Hall.

While evidence left at a scene and cell phone records cast one under a serious cloud of suspicion, they alone do not conclusively place the defendant at the scene. Evidence such as keys can be planted by the actual culprits to incriminate others, and cell phones being near a crime scene do not prove their owners were. However the supplemental, circumstantial evidence of the pair being ID’d near mink farms may have proven to be the deal-breaker in this case – or at least it provided much less wiggle-room in mounting a defense.

The indictment against William Viehl and Alex Hall is a combination of unfortunate errors and dumb luck on the part of fur farmers and the FBI. The evidence provides insight into the mechanics of FBI investigations, and how activists are apprehended for saving animals.

May future liberators learn from this case, and stay free to fight another night.

-Peter Young

William Viehl plead guilty to the McMullin Fur Farm liberation, and in February was sentenced to two years. At the time of this writing, he is in transit to California, where he will serve his time at a low security prison in Terminal Island. Check back soon for a mailing address.

Alex Hall has plead “not guilty” and is still fighting the charges, with the flimsy cell phone records evidence being the only substantial evidence against him.

Alex Hall Inmate #2009-06304 Davis County Jail 800 West State St. Farmington, UT 84025

Israeli military methods

Israeli military methods

Here is an Israeli terrorist demonstrating Israeli heroism. (Reuters) (thanks Fadi)

*This article was originally published in El Libertario #58, March-April 2010. Although originally based on the actual experiences of Venezuela’s social struggles, it deals with situations and facts of interest to activists anywhere.

For some time now the Venezuelan government has made systematic advances in the reorganization of the national police intelligence system, with the intention of discovering and neutralizing autonomous social movements that appear in the country. The Intelligence and Counterintelligence Law (temporarily suspended) and the new Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN in Spanish) are but two examples of this. In order to promote the necessary knowledge on this issue among activists, we give an informative recap of the different tactics used by the State to break up the antagonistic social fabric and criminalize its followers.

_The State’s intelligence tactics_

These tricks were developed and/or systematized by the COINTELPRO program of espionage, provocation and information the FBI used to destroy dissident political groups in the United States. They have been used by most of the world’s States and Venezuela is no exception. Here are some examples:

Surveillance: Intelligence and security organizations use the existing technologies to conduct exhaustive surveillance of activists to prepare the corresponding judicial files. To that end they use the existing surveillance technologies. Photographing, filming, following in vehicles, reading email and correspondence are some of the many tactics used against social militants.

In general, cell phones and frequently visited places are infiltrated by the police to eavesdrop in conversations and do what’s called “information sharing” to combine different pieces of information. Let’s not forget that in Venezuela CANTV (State enterprise that monopolizes telephone land lines) and most private communications enterprises lend themselves to such manipulation by the State.

Infiltration: The State usually places undercover agents in popular demonstrations or inside the assemblies with a dual intent: first, to take note of the persons gathered and the information discussed in the assemblies, second, to promote discord among the attendants in order to trivialize the issues. Not many people go to a gathering without previous interest in the conflict or knowledge of some of the people involved. Since the intelligence services normally use dumb or rookie police for this task, a simple conversation with them usually uncovers who is a plant and who isn’t.

A usual trick is the use of informers. These are people close to the group who, for money, favors or the resolution of judicial problems give information about the group to the intelligence agencies. They are hard to detect and more than once activists have been falsely accused of being informants. This has been used successfully against armed groups particularly in the previous century. Because of this, action groups today tend to be smaller and based on extreme affinity and even family ties.

Another form of infiltration is people who attend a reunion or assembly for the first time and push for extreme or violent acts regardless of the issue being discussed. They stand out because of their subversive rants and their proposals for crazy ideas or plans rarely in tune with reality.

Rumors: The use of informers and infiltrators contributes to the spread of rumors that tend to divide a social front or collective. These baseless rumors seek to discredit the organization and its activists.

False communiqués: Intelligence organizations usually write misleading stuff to create confusion among activists and their kindred organizations. The idea is to find a contradiction within the group that will cause its implosion. For example, in Chile the District Attorney created a group named Frente Anarquista Revolucionario (FAR) [Revolutionary Anarchist Front] that in a provocative fashion claimed responsibility for false actions and stirred polemics with the informal Chilean groups in order to destroy them.

Media disinformation: Certain media work in tight cooperation with intelligence organizations. In general they try to create a preconceived opinion about demonstrators and activists, accusing them of sabotage, of being “enemy agents”, “out of control”, or “maladjusted”. An example is the Venezuelan TV program “La Hojilla” whose anchor –a well known and decorated police informant- plays prosecutor, judge and executioner of dissidents against the current government. The media also serves to broadcast wrong information about groups and initiatives or to publish manipulated information about some activist, attempting to discredit his/her commitment with whatever causes he or she upholds.

For this reason the use of counter information is a fundamental tool. In Venezuela – a country where the majority of the radio-electronic media is in the hands of the current government- the use of blogs, Myspace, Twitter or other communication networks is a necessary tool today and will become even more so in the future.

Harassment: In many countries, intelligence organisms use pressure such as telling the boss an employee is a “radical” or inserting information among his/her acquaintances to make him/her feel uncomfortable or persecuted in their trusted milieu. Accusations such as “homosexual”, “rapist”, “drug addict” are common. Another form of harassment is when the State determines the identity of an activist and decides to arrest or interrogate him/her under any pretext. In many cases the arrest is used to “plant” drugs or other things considered illegal (Molotov cocktails, explosives etc). The goal is to make them quit their activism.

Sabotage: Police organizations (or people connected to them) do sabotage against the meeting places of activists as well as theft of materials. They try to sow fear and discouragement among the sympathizers.

Paramilitary: Intelligence organisms form paramilitary organizations which they equip with weapons and train them to perform the “dirty work” that is not convenient to do under “constitutional legality”. In Venezuela this is formed by the evil “combat corps” or the diverse “popular collectives” that police the poor neighborhoods.

Lethal force: When somebody in a social movement achieves notoriety and other means of control or cooptation by the institutional powers fail, they resort to assassinate the dissident either by thugs (masquerading as common criminals) or in supposed confrontations that are usually uncovered if there is an objective investigation.

_Some measures to avoid infiltration_

1) Turn off your cell phone before a gathering: It has been proven that cell phones can transmit information even when they are off. Put them in a place removed from the discussion area or put them in the refrigerator [TN: better yet, remove the battery]. Black Berrys use GPS (Ground Position System) that gives the exact location where you are. Cell phones are use for data sharing and to establish a dissident’s social network.
2) Before entering the gathering location, try to walk around and reconnoiter the outside area and try to identify suspicious activity that could imply undercover police, usually recognizable by their physique, their way of talking or because they look out of place. Rarely will they look you in the eye and they many times stumble with their explanations.
3) When doing mass email use blind carbon copy (bcc) for the addresses, in case your email falls in the wrong hands you will not expose other people.
4) Send your communications from a cyber café or similar service to prevent the intelligence organizations from obtaining your IP (your computer ID code)
5) Affinity and mutual trust among activists in any campaign are the best antidotes against infiltration and repression. Better a few but secure than many and insecure.
6) Do not contribute to the prevailing disinformation, don’t gossip or circulate ill-intentioned information.
7) Be alert – without becoming paranoid- of infiltrators and provocateurs.
8) If you feel you’re under surveillance let your comrades know about it.
9) Never talk to the police. The National Constitution guarantees your right to remain silent. Don’t collaborate with them. Unlike in the United States, in Venezuela collaboration with the district attorney doesn’t exonerate you and only symbolically diminishes your sentence.

_How to secure your computer_

Today computers are the place where activists keep most of their writings and communiqués. In most raids the first things the security forces confiscate are the computers so we recommend the following:
1) Download and update firewalls such as AVG (www.grisoft.com) or ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com) which are free to download and work with Windows.
2) Install a spyware detector such as Ad-ware in your computer. They can be downloaded free at www.lavasoft.de
3) Deleting documents from your computer doesn’t mean they’re no longer in the hard drive. There is a program called Clean Disk that totally erases them, download it here www.clean-disk-security.softonic.com
4) Encrypt all your sensitive documents. There’s a program called PGP (www.pgp.com) that has been successfully used by activists in many countries.
5) Regularly change your email password, it is recommended to use a 16 digit code containing letters and numbers. A short password is easy to detect. Don’t use birth dates, or the names of family members or pets.
6) There is a free internet provider, Riseup (www.riseup.net) that gives free and secure email addresses to activists.

_Avoid paranoia_

Some activists become paranoid, which completely immobilizes them, abandoning the struggle and becoming passive members of society. Therefore it is important to think about what was said above so we can act with prior knowledge and diminish risks and weaknesses. We must be conscious of the fact that any struggle for the collective is the potential target of police surveillance and that is part of the social dynamics. The armed organizations of control and repression have been created to counter any type of dissidence therefore by being activists we become their target; however, we have better values than they do: our convictions we uphold for a positive social change. Don’t let fatigue and fear stop you!

INDUBIO PRO REO indubioproreovzla@gmail.com

www.nodo50.org/ellibertario - ellibertario@nodo50.org

[Translation: Luis Prat]

www.nodo50.org/ellibertario

Undercover police working at drugs projects and NHS counselling services.uk

| 13.03.2010

It might seem obvious to some people that it happens but there are some people who still believe that they can trust their GPs, nurses, drugs counsellors etc. Doctors are supposed to be bound by confidentiality but nevertheless discuss patients who are activists or other suspects with NETCU, the drugs squad etc. If you thought that your medical records are safe, confodential and private, think on.

While NETCU and MI5 are described as "out of control" by the Independent newspaper many won't fully grasp just what this means unless you have been on the recieving end of this and appreciate just how far they will go to disprupt activists and even ordinary citizens who are not extreme but who are seen as "dissenters" or a "nuisance" or those they want to force into becoming informants. Many affected are Muslim but this will, can and does apply to political activists in the UK including Northern Ireland.

The Independent newspaper reported that Somali youth were persecuted by MI5 who were either accessing medical records or were obtaining information from a member of staff where his wife had just given birth. An MI5 officer who was trying to force him into becoming an informant telephoned and congratulated him on the birht of his child and gave details including the child's name, weight, time of birth etc. This is a real low..MI5 threatening babies.

GPs are not immune from pressure from the secret police. The GP of an activist who has suffered persecution from the secret police was targeted himself by them. They were demanding to know what the activist was telling the GP and wanted to see the patient's/actitivist's/community medical records. They started haning around outside the doctor's home and even cajoled uniformed police to sit outside his house. On at least two occasions he was threatened with arrest for "interfering with his dustbin" when he put his rubbish into it. The police claimed that they had "seen him interfering with the bin before" and would arrest him if he did it again. They eventually got to him [in more ways than one]. They have demanded that he cuts a precsiption of tranquilizers for a patient they regard as a "nuisance" which is being regarded a spunishment tactic rather than anything else. They demanded that a patient that they were "intested in" had a valium prescription reduced / cut off [probaly because they wanted this person to inform and see the valuim as making the information less officially credible]. They told him to advise a patient to "go and visit their family miles away" as they saw this activist as a nuisance and wanted them far away. These patients were confiding in the GP about harrassment by the security services. They have lied to the doctor about patients complaining about them cliaming that they "know" that the patients are "drug users", "alcoholics", "mentally ill" etc...each of them had complained about harrasment by the security services and they knew it. The GP becmae under so much prseeure from patients who were reporting stress, weird goings on that started showing a pattern [stalking, demands to become informants, threats, persecutin etc] that he nearly had a breakdown himself. He told a patient that he too was being stalked and harrased and his own behaviour was being affected. He told a patient "there's always someone outside my house, I know they're out there".
A man in London was sent details of his medical records that he believed no one knew about as part of a serious of threats and harassment from the security services staff.
One victim was described as a "ranting liar" by the security services to the GP who knew that the patient wasn't lying and that other people were saying the same thing and were being harassed...they were also the same patients that the seurity service police were demanding information about.
The GP knew that some of his patients were being harrassed about each other and being asked to inform on and persecute each other by the security services who were then demanding from the GP details about what they were saying. It has been causing mental anguish to the patients affected and to the GPs, other dcotors, reception staff and nurses.

Drugs services are places where people believe that they can get help, confide in people who won't betray them and who they beleive are there to help. These projects are employing drugs sqaud staff and members of the security services. It has been reported by service users that the staff have "become like the police", aggressive, disparaging, unkind, rude etc and have no counselling skills but act as interrorgaters, demanding names of dealers [especially Muslim or political or both], asking to sit in on psychiatric sessions with clients, telling that they can do home visists when they are not supposed to etc. One client confided in one of these staff that he was being harrassed by the security services and almost staright away he was told he ahd "mental health problems" but bizarrely was not allowed to see anyone about this. He was denied acess to mental health counselling..presumably because they didn't want what was happeneing to get out any further.

This an appalling breach of trust and is being used to target people, especially vulnerable people.

The security services are human beings, members of staff who are paid to do a job. They believe that they are unaccountable to anybody. What they are doing is not "in the public interest"..it's harrassment and it is achieving resentment and a growing anger in communities and within the NHS.

Details of patients are now being put on a database accessible to anyone including the police...which is frightening.

This country is descending into fascism at a rate of knots.

Ex-Cop Pleads Guilty In Hurricane Katrina Killing Probe: 2 Shot, Killed On Danziger Bridge

Posted on February 28, 2010 by denverabc

Huffington Post

Ronald Madison was shot to death on the Danziger Bridge.

NEW ORLEANS — In Hurricane Katrina’s chaotic aftermath, police shot six people – killing two – as they crossed a bridge in search of food. For years the case was a shocking symbol of the confusion and violence that swept through the flooded city. On Wednesday it became a mark of shame for the police department.

As victims’ relatives watched from the courtroom gallery, a retired lieutenant who supervised the department’s probe of the shootings pleaded guilty to orchestrating a cover-up to conceal that police gunned down unarmed civilians.

Michael Lohman, a 21-year veteran of the force, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors said Lohman and other unidentified officers conspired to fabricate witness statements, falsify reports of the incident and plant a gun in an attempt to make it appear the killings were justified.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the investigation is continuing and would not say whether higher-ranking officials of the police department might be involved.

Lohman’s plea brought at least some closure to families of victims in the best-known of several violent incidents that raised questions about police conduct immediately after Katrina. The shootings happened on Sept. 4, 2005, six days after the storm smashed levees and flooded 80 percent of the city.

Survivors have said the officers fired at unarmed people who were crossing to get food at a grocery store. The officers claimed they opened fire only after being shot at. Ronald Madison, 40 and mentally disabled, and James Brissette, 19, were killed and four others were wounded.

“We are very, very happy about the progress that the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department have made,” said Romell Madison, Ronald’s brother. “The people of New Orleans should be relieved that there is still justice for everybody here.”

Lohman’s plea marked the first conviction in the case. Seven officers were charged with murder or attempted murder but a state judge threw out all the charges. Federal authorities then stepped in to investigate.

The federal prosecutor said Lohman is cooperating with investigators who want to know more about the police department’s actions.

Dylan Utley, Lohman’s lawyer, said his client “did what’s right for him and what’s right for his situation” and hopes to “make amends.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, Lohman, 42, answered U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle’s questions in a soft voice but didn’t interact with the victims’ relatives. He is free on $50,000 bond and the maximum sentence he faces is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled May 26.

Described by fellow officers as a straight-shooter and hardworking, by-the-book cop, Lohman’s cooperation is expected to be helpful as authorities examine a wide range of problems in the police department after Katrina.

The department’s reputation – never sterling in a city where violent crime is a daily fact of life – was hammered after Katrina with charges that officers were involved with shootings, deserted their posts, looted shops and made off with cars from a Cadillac dealership.

“It looks like the blue code has been broken,” former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenberg said. “Remember, those officers stood shoulder to shoulder when it was in state court. Nobody said anything.”

The “blue code” is likely to face further tests with Lohman’s cooperation as federal prosecutors probe the fatal shooting by police of Danny Brumfield Sr. outside the New Orleans convention center; the death of Henry Glover, whom witnesses claim died in police custody; and the fatal police shooting of a Connecticut man, Matthew McDonald.

Police have pointed to the extreme conditions they were operating under after Katrina. Communications failed, hundreds of police vehicles were destroyed, 80 percent of the force lost their homes to the storm and there were several reports of rescuers being fired upon. Most of those reports were later discounted.

“The constitution applies 365 days a year,” said Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “There are no grace periods from the constitution. The rule of law does not get suspended.”

In unsealing the case against Lohman, prosecutors drew a picture of how the shootings at the Danziger bridge immediately spawned a cover-up.

Lohman went to the scene and saw no weapons near or with the victims of the shooting, federal officials said, and concluded the shootings were not justified.

The documents allege Lohman and an unidentified investigator he supervised drafted different versions of false reports. Among the claims was a fabricated statement by one of the victims that she had seen her nephew and others firing guns on the bridge.

Federal officials say Lohman drafted his own 17-page false report after becoming dissatisfied that another investigator’s false account was not logical.

“On several occasions in or about October 2005, defendant Lohman reviewed drafts of the false report written by the investigator and counseled the investigator on ways to make the story in the report sound more plausible,” according to court documents.

When another investigator planned to plant a gun at the scene, Lohman just asked him if it was “clean,” meaning it couldn’t be traced, according to the documents.

The documents said Lohman also told the investigator to speak with each of the shooting officers to ensure they were “OK with” the false report and were willing to give statements consistent with it.

“It’s pretty incredible stuff,” said Gary Bizal, attorney for Jose Holmes, Jr., who was shot several times as he lay on the ground. “It’s like a script from Hollywood.”

As the investigation continues with Lohman’s cooperation, officers for at least two other officers have identified their clients as targets.

“Now the government has a cooperating witness and it causes those officers to wonder if they should be running to the U.S. Attorney to look for a deal,” Rosenberg said.

Both Letten and Perez refused to say how widespread or high-up the investigation could reach in the department, but both reiterated that the investigation would not be bound.

“The investigation is going to attempt to bring all perpetrators to justice,” Perez said.

___

Associated Press writer Kevin McGill in New Orleans contributed to this story.

Posted on February 28, 2010 by denverabc

Huffington Post